Job creation within the Cape Floral Kingdom.

Brownie Points has been working in partnership with the Grootbos Foundation to implement a
biodiversity stewardship project to benefit conservation and community members through the
creation of employment opportunities. Social Employment Fund in partnership with Brownie Points provides funding for eight day’s worth of work each month for a team of ten women working to clear invasive plant species from the fynbos landscape. The team is led by Princess Kutuka. Princess has worked with the Grootbos Foundation and Walker Bay Conservancy since 2013 to clear alien invasive plants that threaten the biodiversity of the rare and endangered fynbos vegetation types that occur within the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

The Grootbos Foundation launched the Biodiversity Stewardship project in 2021 to implement habitat restoration and rehabilitation projects within the Walker Bay Protected Environment, which provides statutory protection to eight properties within the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy and a conservation buffer to the Private Nature Reserves located within the
conservation area.

Princess Katuka, an independent and entrepreneurial team leader, has shown incredible growth
within her team and business, and has learnt to use the Kwantu App to track her team’s
attendance, providing a more professional service to her clients. Tough, physical work has included the removal of invasive plant species within critically endangered fynbos habitats, maintaining fire breaks ahead of the fire season and maintaining hiking trails. The team has also participated in active habitat restoration by harvesting and smoking fynbos seeds, propagating rare and endangered species and transplanting baby trees from the natural milkwood forests to rehabilitate degraded areas of the forests. Private landowners of the Protected Environment are so pleased with the work that Princess and her
team have delivered, that they have begun to employ the team to implement ad hoc projects at
their own expense.

The value derived from this project allows the women who are employed to take care of their
children and send them to registered Early Childhood Development centres and schools. They
have also developed an appreciation for the landscape they are actively restoring and have
learnt to respect natural areas, seeing them as a source of sustainable income.
The success of this partnership goes beyond conservation efforts. The creation of jobs for
women in the Overberg region has had a positive impact on the community. The working team
has begun to take pride in their work and become more involved in their local community.
The Grootbos Foundation is enormously grateful for the Brownie Points’ contribution towards
landscape level conservation and the creation of much needed jobs within the Overberg region.

To find out more about The Good Economy campaign and how you can lend a helping hand to Grootbos Foundation, visit the campaign site here: Brownie Points | The Good Economy